Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: while in Heb. xi. 21, which refers to the incident, we read that he "worshipped [leaning] upon the top of his staff." In the unpointed Hebrew occurs the word MTH, which the Massoretic text reads MsTTaH a bed, while the Septuagint, which is quoted in Hebrews, made it read MaTTeH, a staff. § 19. Besides the Septuagint, there are other ancient versions of the Old Testament, going back to a time before the completion of the Massoretic text. There are, for instance, the Jewish Targums, or translations made into Aramaic, which was the spoken language after the decay of Hebrew. There is also the Syriac version made for the use of the Syrian Christians. And there are various Latin translations, the best known of which is the Vulgate, not to speak of other versions. From these, which were made either direct from the Hebrew or from the Septuagint, scholars are able to determine the sense in which the texts were read ; and by their aid they can check the received text at doubtful points, and draw their conclusions as to what the original readings may have been. The Massoretic text, however, has had so long a history, has been so carefully handed down, and is in the main so thoroughly supported by the versions, that no complete text of the Old Testament has yet been brought fonvard to take its place ; and even in the Revised Version, published as late as 1885, "the Revisers have thought it most prudent to adopt the Massoretic Text as the basis of their work, and to depart from it, as the Authorised Translators had done, only in exceptional cases." 1 1 Preface to the Revised Version. PART II THE BOOKS COMPOSING THE OLD TESTAMENT CHAPTER VI GENERAL V1EW OF THE BOOKS § 20. THE Old Testament may be regarded, as we have seen (§§ 1, 2), not merely as one whole book, but also as...